The Definitions and Onset of an Old Person in South-Western Nigeria

This paper investigates the definitions and onset of an old person in South-Western Nigeria. Conventionally, anyone who has reached the age of 60 or 65 years is regarded as the onset of an old person. But on contrary, this recent study is strongly emphasizing that 50 years and above is the onset of an old person in South-Western Nigeria. Obviously, the definitions and onset of an old person are controversial, yet, revealing in this paper. The study captured 13 Local Government Areas in Lagos state while 11 Local Government Areas were covered in Oyo state. The study employed focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs). However, 938 old persons were interviewed through questionnaire administration in Lagos and Oyo states of South-Western Nigeria. The univariate, FGDs, and IDIs were employed in the analyses of this research. The major findings of this study are the following: firstly, that there are different dimensions of the definitions of an old person that include frailty, inactivity, loss of strength, respect, blessedness, sickness, growing old, and inability to do hard work. Secondly, that someone who has reached the age of 50 years and above can be regarded as an old person, which is the onset of an old person in South-Western Nigeria society. On the basis of earlier findings, the study hereby recommends that anyone who has attained the age of 50 years and above should be recognized, regarded, and honored as an Elder by the State Government of South-Western Nigeria society where they are presently residing.     

Beyond contact-tracing: The public value of eHealth application in a pandemic

This study adopts a public value perspective to examine the eHealth services deployed by national and regional governments to contain the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, including symptoms checkers, information portals and contact-tracing applications. We analyse 50 cases of eHealth applications adopted in 25 European Economic Area (EEA) and outline how these systems and technologies map against four dimensions of public value: user orientation, participation, legality and equity. Our findings reveal that the public value of the eHealth applications adopted in the context of the current pandemic is affected by both endogenous and exogenous factors that undermine their ability to improve the quality of healthcare services and social wellbeing. We conclude by suggesting areas for further research to address such factors and the trade-offs emerging between different dimensions of public value.     

Job Satisfaction among Cataloger Librarians in University Libraries in Nigeria

The aim of the article is to investigate the level of job satisfaction among cataloger librarians in university libraries in Nigeria. Eighty-six catalogers from 29 university libraries in Nigeria participated in the survey. A questionnaire was used for data collection, which was e-mailed to catalogers. Overall, 86% of the catalogers surveyed were very or somewhat satisfied with their current job. The findings revealed that catalogers in university libraries in Nigeria are dissatisfied with dimensions such as roles and responsibilities, workplace culture, rewards (salaries/benefits), and professional development. On the other hand, they are satisfied with administration and supervision, performance evaluation, and opportunities.     

Assessment in a Rwandan higher education institution: a quest for aligned assessment to promote socio-economic transformation

Assessment in institutions of higher learning has been researched worldwide. However, there are gaps in research exploring the implications of assessment practices for learners’ access to the kind of knowledge enabling them to participate in their communities’ socio-economic transformation. This is the case in the African Great Lakes region, including Rwanda. This paper investigated the assessment practices at the University of Rwanda-College of Education to establish whether they enable students to access powerful knowledge for socio-economic transformation, which promotes critical thinking and creativity, or the knowledge of the powerful, which promotes memorization of knowledge produced by experts. The study adopted mixed methods, where 361 questions from 20 examinations papers for 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 academic years were analysed using Bloom’s revised taxonomy. Interviews with lecturers and group discussions with students were conducted. The findings revealed that assessment practices heavily encourage the knowledge of the powerful, with limited focus on the socio-economic transformative knowledge. Such practices are unlikely to lead to national socioeconomic transformation, which the government expects from education. The paper recommends revisiting assessment practices in Rwandan higher education to instil in the graduates the required knowledge for active contribution to socio-economic transformation.     

Digital educational games and mathematics. Results of a case study in primary school settings

The study presents the results of a project in which a series of digital games were used for teaching Mathematics to first, fourth, and sixth-grade primary school students (ages 6–7, 8–9, and 11–12). Mathematics was selected as the teaching subject because of the difficulties students face in understanding basic math concepts. Although digital games are used quite extensively for educational purposes, they are scarcely used for teaching Mathematics. The games were developed by the classes' teachers using Microsoft's Kodu Game Lab. The learning outcomes were compared to two other groups of students. The first was taught using the model proposed by Driver and Oldham while the second was taught conventionally. Data was collected using questionnaires and evaluation sheets. A total of 201 students participated in the study coming from three schools in Athens, Greece. Results indicated that students in the games group outperformed, in most cases, students in the other groups. Students' views for the games were highly positive. The implications for software engineers and education administrators are also discussed.     

An adaptive controller for nonlinear teleoperators with variable time-delays

In most real-life bilateral teleoperators the available physical parameters are uncertain and the communications exhibit variable time-delays. In order to confront these situations and only assuming that a bound of the time-delays is known, the present work reports an adaptive controller which ensures asymptotic convergence of both position errors and velocities to zero, provided that a sufficient condition on the control gains is met. Compared to previous related works that only treated constant time-delays, the stability analysis does not rely on the cascade interconnection structure of the local and remote nonlinear dynamics and the linear interconnection map. Instead, the paper employs a different Lyapunov candidate function that incorporates a strictly positive term, the local and remote position error. Some simulations, in free space and interacting with a rigid wall, and experiments, using two nonlinear manipulators, illustrate the performance of the proposed control scheme in the presence of uncertain parameters and variable time-delays.     

Natural-Born Arguers: Teaching How to Make the Best of Our Reasoning Abilities

We summarize the argumentative theory of reasoning, which claims that the main function of reasoning is to argue. In this theory, argumentation is seen as being essentially cooperative (people have to listen to others' arguments and be ready to change their mind) but with an adversarial dimension (their goal as argument producers is to convince). Consistent with this theory, the experimental literature shows that solitary reasoning is biased and lazy, whereas reasoning in group discussion produces good results, provided some conditions are met. We formulate recommendations for improving reasoning performance, mainly, to make people argue more and better by creating felicitous conditions for group discussion. We also make some suggestions for improving solitary reasoning, in particular to maximize students' exposure to arguments challenging their positions. Teaching people about the value of argumentation is likely to improve not only immediate reasoning performance but also long-term solitary reasoning skills.     

Implementation and outcomes of online self and peer assessment on group based honours research projects

Honours research projects in the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at the University of Adelaide are run with small groups of students working with an academic supervisor in a chosen area for one year. The research project is mainly self-directed study, which makes it very difficult to fairly assess the contribution of individual students to a group-based research project. Until recently, a paper-based method of self and peer assessment (SPA) for the honours research projects was used to assess the projects. This was unsatisfactory for both students and academic staff, who found that the same mark was often awarded by the peers to each student without feedback. In 2010, therefore, an online SPA tool, SPARK, together with a set of newly developed assessment criteria, were used for SPA by the honours students. The new SPA criteria are based on teamwork and research skills, and the new rating scales reflect standard academic grades. Surveys of the students confirmed that they found the criteria and scales much more suitable for the assessment of group work and design projects.     

The relationship between sources of self-efficacy in classroom environments and the strength of computer self-efficacy beliefs

Motivation and success in computer-science courses are influenced by the strength of students’ self-efficacy (SE) beliefs in their learning abilities. Students with weak SE may struggle to be successful in a computer-science course. This study investigated the factors that enhance or impede the computer self-efficacy (CSE) of computer-science students. Data collection involved a survey of 524 undergraduate computer-science students from 10 Thai universities. The survey measured four items of CSE, 13 items pertaining to the classroom learning environment (CLE), and 14 items related to information sources of SE. Results revealed that perceptions of a CLE with autonomy, meaningfulness, and involvement were positively associated with strong CSE. In addition, perceptions of social persuasions such as meaningful and encouraging feedback or judgment from influential people demonstrated a statistically positive relationship with CSE. Perceptions of vicarious experiences whereby students determine and compare their own abilities with observational experiences of role models also demonstrated a statistically positive relationship with CSE. Perceived physiological and affective states such as anxiety and stress demonstrated a negative influence CSE. Implications for practice relate to students’ perceptions of autonomous learning, the value of positive feedback, students’ input into learning content and activities, role models for students and observation of how peers perform tasks better or worse.     

Long-Term Memory for a Single Infancy Experience

Children's memory of a single infant experience was evaluated. Children in the experimental groups (N = 16 for 2.5-year-olds; N = 8 for 1.5-year-olds) had participated at 6.5 months in a study of auditory localization where they reached in the light and dark for a sounding object. They were reintroduced to the laboratory and the dark procedure they had experienced on that one occasion either 1 or 2 years previously. The first 5 trials were uninstructed; for the remaining 5 trials, children were instructed to find the sounding object. For half of the older group, a potential reminder of the infant procedure was introduced. The original infant rattle was sounded for 3 sec out of reach in the dark one-half hour prior to test trials. Equal numbers of age-matched inexperienced control subjects were also tested. The older children with infant experience reached and grasped the sounding object significantly more overall, and on instructed trials, than age-matched control children. Experienced 2.5-year-olds were also more likely to remain in the testing situation than children in the control group. The reminder facilitated uninstructed performance of the experienced children. Instructions to reach were helpful to all subjects. We conclude that children remembered aspects of a single experience that occurred when they were 6.5 months of age.